Reviews by joejee

Bob didn't invent reggae, but this album helped refine it. Excellent groove throughout, with luscious bass.

I've never listened to Neil Young before. I have now realised that was no true loss to me. Painfully dull.

Crikey that was a good album. Excellent jazzy blues all the way through. I'm a big Kenny Burrell fan already, so it was bound to resonate with me.

Peak 2009. Not in a good way. There is nothing memorable about this wishy washy rubbish, but equally it wasn't offensive.

Camp fun, slides down the ears.

Goths in the 1980s had it rough.

I enjoyed this a lot. Greatest album ever? Don't think so, but it's pretty special. I'm a fan of anything that uses unconventional instruments to build its sonic landscape in a unique way. Bass playing is top notch too.

This is where the line blurs between best albums and most impactful albums. Yeah it's great, yeah it changed the world of music, but there's very few unique ideas and outside of nostalgia and studying popular music history, there's very little reason to listen to this in the modern day.

Short, enjoyable bit of latin funk. As soon as it finished, I listened to Low Rider though.

Utter dogshit.

I pressed play and thought it was a blues album. I've never been so disappointed so quickly.

Love the stereo effects; there's some decent mastering for 1963, but can't help feeling like the out-of-time, super quiet kick panned far left ruins things a little bit in Night Life. I liked the super chill, laid back blues of Night Life, but the country is bollocks. Started strong and rapidly dropped off musically, but Ray's voice is lovely at least. And how many songs need to start with violin chord stabs? Come on, lad, you've got a full band. Use them.

Opening with a ring modulator is a brave move. I love the use of African percussion and vocal effects in the intro, too. Outkast weave in a lot of heavy plosives into their recordings, which gives them quite a unique feel. The aggressive beats and overdiven guitar and synth puts across the same emotions of their lyrics. This album also has Ms Jackson, a massive international hit, which was a soft introduction for huge swathes of people into hip-hop. Their buttery smooth rapping is the icing on the cake.

Nice tones, good recording quality, musically fascinating, good variety. Doesn't hold up very well in the modern day, and just feels like classic boomer rubbish now. Guitarist only knows one picking pattern, but the bassist is fun to listen to. The music this inspired is better.

I'm just not interested in live albums. Not sure why anyone would want to listen to a crumbier version of perfectly good studio music unless you were actually there. I'd prefer this song list as just a compilation of the album versions. The live music doesn't add anything, and strips off a lot of polish. Only giving this 2 because at least the songs are good.

Count Basie didn't invent big band, but this album is a flawless presentation of everything that makes it great. You'd have to be properly miserable to not enjoy this.

Not the right album if you're introducing someone new to hip-hop. Several stone-cold classics, excellent (if uncharacteristic) mixing/mastering, and a great all-round album for connoisseurs, but let down by the too-laid-back beats that don't match the lyrics. I could've done with the aggression turned up a little bit. Unfortunately, this leaves it trailing its contemporaries. Still great, though.

Luscious tones and lovely singing, this is how to do a folk album properly. Has plenty of variety, but it lacks a sense of excitement which could've rounded it off. Excellent dynamics though.

Yeah it's alright. Gets boring after 5 or 6 tracks though, and by the end I was completely over it. Too long with too little variation, sounds like any cookie-cutter country/blues/rock album that many others before have done better. It's the McDonalds of rock albums.

Any album that starts with such a beautiful FM electric piano is worth its weight in gold to me. This album also has some of the best vocals mastering/mixing/recording I've ever heard, and the overall sound design is nothing short of genius. It's not an album for everyone, but it's right up my street, and the mastering quality cannot be denied. Aside from this, it's hugely musically varied. Not every track is a banger, but it's easy enough to leave playing and still enjoy it.

This is a flawless psychedelic blues album that doesn't put a single note wrong. The mastering is fantastic and gives an extra-dimensional quality that you just don't find in the modern day.